Wednesday, August 1, 2012

The perfect bread...

If you are interested in cooking there are two things you might have stumbled upon: Heirloom tomatoes and the no knead bread. So today I am adding one more blog posting about This subject.

I have done a lot of baking in my life, and more and more it seems as if I don't really need that many different types of bread. One of the bread types I cant live without is a white fluffy bread with big holes and a golden cracked surface. This is the bread to use for Bruchetta and crostini. This is also the bread I put on the table for a tapas style dinner. It is a great bread to use for vegetables since it does not have the strong whole wheat flavor.

Jim Lahey is the guy behind the no knead bread method. Somehow a very moist dough that is left to rise for a long time develops the gluten network similar to that of bread dough that has been kneaded for a long time. I would really like ti know the food science behind this... So please let me know...

I call my version of this bread the one/one third bread. The most important in a bread dough like this that only consist of water, a tiny tiny amount of yeast, salt and flour, is the ratio between water and flour, and that has a lot to do with the flour you are using. The flour gives the dough the right consistency at the ratio one / one third between water and flour. That's it dead simple. Decide how much bread you want to make. I used 400 g water, 530 g flour, yeast at the size of a pea, and 6 g of salt. Just stir it together.Leave to rise for a minimum of 12 hours. Shape the bread, and let it rise on a flipped over baking sheet. Put a pizza stone in the oven with a oven thermometer and turn it on the highest temperature possible and let it heat while the bread rises.

Take the rack with the pizza stone out of the oven and close the ovens door. Slide the bread over on the stone and put it back in the oven. Throw ½ a deciliter of water into the oven to create steam, and do the same after 3 minutes. When the first brown spot shows I turn it down to 200 degrees C and leave to bake till it has a golden color

I want more cracks like this....

I normally don't just make two breads I make a lot and I bake them for a shorter time. Into the freezer they go. One bread is enough for one dinner based mostly on bread.

The bread has the perfect size and toasted they give a good surface structure for rubbing garlic on.

Mette Antero Kjær

My world is a world of making...... I am a potter but it seems as if I cant keep my hands of anything that can be made. I love all the things that starts from basics, may it be clay, fibres, paints and so on.